


And You're The Sky

by ix3thehpseries



Series: Maybe I Belong Among the Stars [2]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: also apparently i lied in the earlier tags, bc she was adorable in the finale like she is gonna be so good at space, canon is neither of those things, ch 5 is gonna be all abt emori experiencing and loving space, i can already feel it, i lied not all of these are gonna be sad, i somehow always make myself sad with spec fics, that's why is stick to modern aus, these drabbles are gonna hurt me, this chapter is abt clarke and madi, those are always cute and fluffy, wow guys it's been a while but i really like this one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2018-11-05 10:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11011620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ix3thehpseries/pseuds/ix3thehpseries
Summary: A collection of s5 speculative drabbles.1: It'll take the Space Squad five more days to get the ship back down to Earth. Five days of not knowing who Clarke saw on Day 2199 - of not knowing if she's okay.2: Clarke didn’t ever expect that she’d be hugging John Murphy, but it’s the first time she’s seen any of her friends in over six years. And the others are still prisoners, so hugging Murphy it is.3: It takes all of two minutes for the irony of situation to take hold, but Clarke reigns in her urge to laugh. She’ll tell Bellamy when they’re finally back together. He’ll appreciate that it’s basically the same as the first time they came down, except now Clarke’s the grounder.4: Bellamy and Clarke are reunited after 2204 days apart. 2204 days of her radioing him and 2204 days of him hearing her and not being able to respond.5: When Clarke first sees Madi, she’s sure that this is it. This is the point where not seeing another living thing for over a year drives her insane. The first symptom is probably hallucinations.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I planned these out poorly, so, for your convenience: Chapters 1 & 4 read together (and are the sequels to [Static Noise](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11004222)) & Chapters 2 & 3 read together. Everything else is separate.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part two to [Static Noise](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11004222). (Edit: there is now also a [part three](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11011620/chapters/24649968).) You don't necessarily have to read that first, but it would probably help. Also, a disclaimer: I haven't taken a science class since senior year of high school. I am making all of this shit up and do not think it is at all reasonable or viable, but I needed some explanation for why they stayed in space longer than the five years and how they were planning to get down. Don't hate me, science peoples.

It takes two minutes before Raven starts barking out orders.

When she told him that they didn’t have enough fuel to get back to Earth, Bellamy had never seen her so defeated. He found her crying that night, staring out the large window, murmuring that she was sorry over and over again.

Now, she’s telling Monty to _fuck the oxygen generator_ , they’ll just refill their oxygen tanks and use those. He and Bellamy need to strip the rocket.

“Of everything you can strip, except the necessary components. We need it as light as possible to make this work,” she orders. She barely looks up from the computer, where her fingers are flying over the keys. She’s muttering to herself, numbers that make no sense to Bellamy and she pauses, glancing around the room once before returning to the computer.

“Echo and Harper, get the solar panels and put them in the hangar bay. I’ll install them tomorrow. We need to be completely ready when that window hits.”

“What about us?” Murphy asks, gesturing to Emori and himself. The other groups have already left to their tasks.

“Your job is to stay here,” Raven says, not looking up, “And tell me that there’s always a way when I start saying that this won’t work.”

Emori moves behind Raven, putting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing.

“Got it,” Murphy says. “You know I’m great at telling people they’re wrong.”

***

The first day is the easiest. Everyone’s distracted with getting the ship ready, making sure they have everything they need to leave when Raven says go.

The second day, Clarke doesn’t radio and the absence of her voice in the early afternoon is striking.

Bellamy’s been pacing all day, down the hallways, through the hangar bay, in their makeshift mess hall, around the control room while Raven runs simulations.

“You need to stop!” she finally shouts at him. “I can’t focus with you doing that in here.”

“She didn’t radio.”

Raven takes a deep breath, still glaring at him. “I know. But you pacing around here won’t make her radio, it will just make me want to throw you off the damn ship.”

She turns around in a huff, dropping into her chair and hunching back over the computer.

Bellamy paces the hallways instead.

It’s been a few hours since Raven’s outburst when Echo sticks her head out of her room. She watches him pace for a few minutes before stepping out and blocking his path.

“She’s fine,” Echo says. Her voice is steady and she keeps her eyes on his, even when he runs a hand over his face in frustration.

“We don’t know that!” Bellamy turns away from her, raising his hand like he’s going to punch the wall before yanking it back down. “She could be dead. Someone landed yesterday and today she didn’t radio.”

“She’s fine,” Echo repeats. “Clarke is smart. If there’s someone there – someone from space, with tech like you came down with – they might be able to hear her radioing. She wouldn’t want to risk it, if it could lead to them finding her and Madi.”

She watches as Bellamy’s shoulders slump and he turns, leaning back against the wall and sinking down. He tilts his head back, eyes closed tight.

Echo sits across from him, leaning against the opposite wall. When Monty and Harper walk down the hall twenty minutes later, they take a seat on either side of Bellamy.

***

“Two more days and we’ll be able to smell fresh air again.”

“Two more days and we won’t have to eat space food.”

“Two more days and we’ll probably be fighting for our lives.”

“Two more days and I can use a bow again.”

“Two more days and we’ll know if Clarke’s okay.”

“Leave it to you to bring down the mood, Bellamy.”

***

“I am going to strap you into a chair until takeoff if you don’t stop pacing!” Raven says. She’s in the cockpit, making a few last minute adjustments while Bellamy paces the hangar bay. His excuse was that he came to help, but Raven thinks he might just want to be close to where the action is. Or to her, so that he can repeatedly ask her if she’s sure this is going to work.

“Or,” she continues, yelling over the sound of the metal on metal, “I’m going to get Monty to cook something up to knock you out until we land. The first time Clarke sees you in six years you’ll be passed out and probably drooling.”

“We don’t even know if she’s still there.”

Raven continues on like she didn’t hear him. “Maybe I can just have Echo knock you out. That would probably be more efficient. I need Monty to run some checks. Echo has a little free time today. I bet she could knock you out cold with one hit. Maybe two, since she’s out of practice.”

Bellamy huffs, a small smile on his face before it quickly drops off. “Give me something to do,” he demands. His voice is a mix between a petulant child and someone begging for a lifeline.

“Go check on everyone else,” Raven says, her voice softening as she peeks out of the cockpit. “Make sure everyone is ready for tomorrow. Try to take your time. I’ve got to finish this, but when you come back I’ll have something for you to do.”

***

They’re gathered in the hangar bay, radiation suits on, staring at the ship.

“We’re really going back,” Echo says, quiet.

It’s silent for a few more seconds, before Raven claps her hands together. “Time to get in. We’ve got thirty minutes until our window hits. I want us to be ready.”

“What happens if we miss it?” Murphy asks, climbing up into the cockpit.

Bellamy’s voice is almost a growl when he says, “We’re not missing it.”

“But if we do.”

“We won’t,” Monty says, voice low and determined. “We can’t.”

It doesn’t take long for them to get settled in the stripped cockpit and then it’s quiet.

“Okay,” Raven says, once the silence becomes too much. “I hooked up the solar panels. We’ll use the remaining fuel to get us close enough to Earth that we’re pulled into its orbit. After that, we’ll use the solar energy to break through so that we don’t burn up in reentry. If that all works, the parachutes will deploy to slow our landing. We should crash into the lake near Clarke’s patch of green.”

“That sounds like a lot of ‘ifs’,” Harper says.

“It is.”

“Be ready when we land,” Bellamy says, barely letting Raven’s statement sink in. “We don’t know who was landing five days ago. We don’t know what we’re coming down to. They could be hostile. Be alert when we get out. If you see anything suspicious, get back in the ship.”

The timer starts beeping and Raven shushes everyone, guiding the ship out of the hangar bay.

“Now or never,” she says, before taking a deep breath and pushing the button in front of her.

The ship moves with a jolt and Emori grabs Murphy’s hand, holding it tight in her own. After a second, Bellamy feels a hand grasping his own, and when he looks over he sees that Echo’s got one hand tight on his. Her other hand is in Emori’s free hand and he notices that all of his friends have linked hands. He leans forward to put a hand on Raven’s shoulder, and she reaches up to hold it just as they hit reentry.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke didn't ever expect that she'd be hugging John Murphy, but it's the first time she's seen any of her friends in over six years. And the others are still prisoners, so hugging Murphy it is.

They watch, hidden by the sparse trees and new growth, while the prisoners make their way off the ship in a single-file line. Next to her, Madi is fidgeting, and Clarke shushes her more than once, a sharp Trigedasleng reprimand on the tip of her tongue when Madi whispers, “Why do they look different?”

Clarke’s next breath comes out somewhere between a gasp and a sob.

The second line of prisoners is led by Monty – he’s older, hair a little longer and shoulders a little more hunched, but unmistakably _Monty_. Behind him, and linked to him with another chain is Murphy, then Emori, Echo, and Harper. Raven comes next, limping slightly. Her chin is held up, expression all defiance as she scans the tree line.

Then there’s Bellamy and Clarke makes that sound again, muffled by her hand this time. He’s close behind Raven, fingers flexing like he’s itching to reach out and help her along. He’s scanning the tree line, too, and it takes everything in Clarke to not run toward them, caution be damned.

Next to her, Madi’s nudging her again. “Who are they? What’s going on?”

Clarke opens her mouth, but she can’t make any words come out. She ends up shaking her head and Madi nods, refocusing her attention on the newcomers.

That’s when Clarke realizes that something is off. The first line of prisoners held ten, maybe fifteen people. The second held all of her friends. After that, people stream out freely, all in the same gray clothes, whooping and hollering. Clarke counts nearly a hundred before she pulls Madi back with her.

She waits until they’re at the cave where Madi had hidden the rover to speak.

“That… that was them,” she breathes out. “The ship said it was a prison ship, but I think the prisoners must have overtaken the guards.”

Madi cocks her head to the side. “So they’re bad people?”

“I don’t know. I was a prisoner when I came down here. But that second line, the one that you said looked different, that was them. That was Bellamy and Raven and Monty and _everyone_. They’re alive and they’re back.”

“But they’re with the bad people,” Madi says, hesitant.

“I think they must have been captured,” Clarke says. Madi is looking at her with confusion and Clarke can’t blame her. She’s imagined what this would be like a million times and it was something Madi always asked about – what would happen when they came back, how would they get here, what would it be like – and none of her imaginings ever started out this way.

“Captured by the prisoners?" Madi says. “After they captured their guards?”

“Yeah,” Clarke says. “That must be what happened.”

She pauses, realizing something else. “They must have heard my transmission. That’s how they knew to land here. They’ll know we’re near.”

“Will we have to move?” Madi asks.

Clarke considers it, then shakes her head. “We’ll be fine until tomorrow. I want to watch them today and tonight. See what they do.”

Madi nods and they head to a higher vantage point to spend the day observing. The prisoners seem elated that they’re back on the ground and Clarke feels a pang in her chest, remembering the first days at the Dropship, when they’d acted the same way. She gets a few glimpse of her friends, but for the most part they’re kept in the ship and Clarke realizes that the prisoners had been let out first in case they were going to be attacked.

Clarke sends Madi back to the cave, but she watches until late in the night, when most of the makeshift camp has fallen asleep under the stars, before she goes back and lies down next to Madi, falling into a fitful sleep.

The next day, Clarke nearly has a heart attack when she wakes up to find Murphy leaning over her. Madi is next to him, a gun held loosely in her hand but still pointed in Murphy’s direction.

“Not that I’m not happy just to see you alive, but I’m really happy you’re alive to help with this jailbreak.”

Clarke stares at him for a minute before scrambling up and launching herself at him. Murphy stumbles a little, but he manages to get his hands on her waist and it takes her a second to realize the thing pressing into her stomach is the chain of his shackles.

“Knew you would miss me,” Murphy says, voice thick. “I can’t wait to tell Bell that I was the first one to hug you in six years.”

Clarke pulls back, looking at his wrists and instructing Madi to get her a heavy rock. “I can break the chain for now, but I won’t be able to get them off. What happened to you?”

“Space pirates,” Murphy says, easy. “Captured us three years in. Apparently they were in cryo-sleep on their way to a mining colony. They woke up and decided to overtake the guards. Then, while they were at it, raid the only other space station they could find. Surprise, they found us. At least, that’s what we managed to figure out.”

“So those other prisoners were the original guards?” Clarke asks. She’s still inspecting his shackles. It’s hard to look at him, to see the changes in his face and know that the others will all show the same signs of age. It’s been _six years_.

“Yeah, that’s what they told us.” Murphy’s quiet for a minute before he says, “So you got a kid.”

“Madi,” Clarke says. “She’s a Nightblood. I found her after six months.”

“She asked if I was Bellamy.”

When Clarke looks at his face, Murphy is smirking at her.

She’s saved from answering by Madi. It takes a few tries, but they manage to break one of the chains enough to separate it. Murphy rolls his shoulders, swinging his arms around a few times, chains jangling where they’re still attached to his cuffs.

“We heard you radio, the last few days. That’s how they knew to land here,” he says, looking pointedly at Clarke.

“I realized they must have heard yesterday,” she says. “They landed right after I told Raven to aim for the spot of green.”

“After you told Bellamy to tell Raven to aim for the spot of green.”

Clarke continues on like she hasn’t heard him. “How did you get out? How are we going to get everyone else out?”

“It was fluke,” Murphy says, sitting and taking the food that Madi offers him. She sits next to him and leans forward, hanging on his every word. “Last night they messed up when they chained us all together and I wasn’t attached. They only had one guard on us and he fell asleep. We agreed I should leave and try to find you. I was stumbling through the trees when your Nightblood found me and held me at gunpoint.”

Madi sits back and glares at him. “I didn’t get a good look at you all yesterday, so I didn’t know if you were one of Clarke’s friends or not.”

“You did good, Madi,” Clarke says. “This is Murphy.”

“Oh.” She looks at Murphy with renewed interest. “Is your girlfriend okay?”

Murphy looks taken aback before he says, “Yeah, she’s fine. Everyone’s okay. How’d you know about her?”

“Clarke talked about you,” Madi says, before Clarke has a chance to stop her. “And to you. She even let me try the radio a few times. She radioed Bellamy every day even though he never talked back to us. And she told me stories about all of you and how you were up in space, but that one day you would come back down to us. And you did!”

“Yeah, I guess we did,” Murphy says, his tone dry. Then, after a pause, “We thought you were dead until we heard you on the radio a few days ago.”

“I didn’t know if you made it to the Ring,” Clarke says. “The interference from Praimfaya knocked out the tablet before it told me if the signal transmitted.”

Murphy nods, once. “Now that we’ve got the pleasantries out of the way, let’s figure out how to get everyone else.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes all of two minutes for the irony of situation to take hold, but Clarke reigns in her urge to laugh. She’ll tell Bellamy when they’re finally back together. He’ll appreciate that it’s basically the same as the first time they came down, except now Clarke’s the grounder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I'm kind of regretting starting a drabble collection and not sitting on these for a few days and just making a couple of oneshots, but you live and you learn. This is the sequel to the drabble from Chapter 2.

Murphy tells Clarke everything he knows about their friends’ captors, which is not much. They landed, left a few people in charge of their various prisoners, and then decided to frolic about, on a high from their new freedom.

Frolic is the actual word that Murphy uses. Clarke wants to smack him, but she’s not sure if he’d take in in jest or if he’d be offended.

“Honestly?” Murphy finally says, after an hour of discussion. “I think our best bet is to just wait until everyone’s asleep, take out the guards, and grab them. Do you have anything that could cut through the chains faster than the rock you used for me?”

“We can find something,” Madi says. She’s squatting down, arms on her knees, looking like she’s ready to go into battle.

Clarke shoots her a look. “You’re not going with,” she says, stern. “It could be dangerous. You’re going to stay here.”

“And do what?” Madi asks. “Wait for you to come back? What if you don’t?”

“Madi, it’s too dangerous and you’re too young-“

“You wanna talk about being too young to do things?” Murphy interjects. “You were the Commander of Death before you were eighteen.”

“Commander of Death?” Madi repeats, nose crinkled like she smells something bad. “I heard stories about her when I was little. There’s no way the Commander of Death was Clarke.”

Murphy opens his mouth, but at Clarke’s look he closes it. “You’re right. I must have been thinking of someone else.”

Clarke rolls her eyes at him. “Madi, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I can help,” she argues. “And what if you get hurt? What am I supposed to do?”

There’s a tense silence for a minute, Clarke and Madi not breaking each other’s stare, until Murphy says, “She has a point. You said nobody came out of the bunker. You might as well bring her with. If it doesn’t work, then at least she’s with us instead of alone.”

“Fine,” Clarke says. She shoots Murphy a glare before turning back to Madi. “You do exactly as I say. This is dangerous and we need to get in and out of there as quickly as possible.”

“I’ll listen,” Madi says, a small smile growing on her face.

“What are we supposed to do about the guards?” Clarke asks. “I’m not shooting them. It would wake everyone else up and it would be the first shot in another war. I’m not doing this again.”

Clarke pauses as soon as she says it, a laugh bubbling up in her throat. Murphy gives her a weird look, like he’s not sure the last six years haven’t done some damage on her sanity, but it’s hard to not see the irony. She fights her urge to laugh and focuses on the task at hand. Once they’ve got their friends, she can tell Bellamy. He’ll appreciate that they’re in basically the same situation as the first time they came down, except now Clarke’s the grounder.

“I don’t know how else you plan to take care of them,” Murphy says. “They’ll probably leave more than just one now that they know I’m gone.”

“We’ll cause a distraction,” Clarke says. “Or something. Let’s go watch them for now. Maybe they’ll only leave one or two guards.”

They head to the spot that Clarke had stayed at the day before to watch the new makeshift camp and they spend the rest of the day waiting. It takes longer for the camp to settle down tonight, people rowdier and breaking off from the main group near the bonfire that’s been built. Clarke suspects the mood in the camp has to do with their lack of food and shelter and she considers the option of negotiating for a minute, but – she wants her friends back _now_. And from what Murphy’s said, these people don’t seem like the types to negotiate.

Once the movements in the camp have stopped, they get to work. Tonight, their friends are outside, their chains connected to a piece of metal sticking out of the ground. There are three guards on them, and Clarke finally decides their best course of action is a distraction.

“I’ll get the guards as far away as I can,” Clarke says, handing Murphy the large, metal bolt-cutters she and Madi had scavenged a few months back. They’d used them to help transform the rover and then kept them on hand for emergencies. “Be quick and keep Madi with you.”

She turns to Madi and puts her hands on her shoulders. “Listen to Murphy. And if something goes wrong you get back to the cave, okay?”

Madi nods once, looking determined. “You’ll meet us back there?”

“Yes,” Clarke says. She leans forward and kisses Madi’s forehead before turning and heading off.

They wait until the guards rouse themselves, talking for a few minutes before two of them head off towards the trees and one stays behind.

Murphy curses once, but then says. “We can handle one. Come on, mini Clarke.”

***

Clarke doesn’t expect the guards to follow her for as long as they do, but they are aware that there’s someone else here, so she shouldn’t be surprised. It takes her about a half an hour longer than she would like to circle back to the cave and she gets two steps inside before she’s knocked backward, arms tight around her midriff.

“I thought something happened!” Madi is saying, her voice muffled where she’s buried her head against Clarke’s chest. “You weren’t back when you said you’d be.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” she says, stroking Madi hair. “It took me longer to get rid of them.”

Madi loosens her grip and that’s when Clarke gets her first good look at the cave, her breath leaving her in one sharp exhale.

“Bellamy,” she breathes. He’s not moving, staring at her so intently that it makes her want to shiver.

Then, she’s surrounded, everyone trying to hug her, Emori telling her how amazing space was, Echo repeating over and over that she can’t believe she’s alive, Monty and Harper and Raven all trying to talk to her at once, to ask how she survived, how she managed to get power to the ring, what she’s been doing for the last six years.

Bellamy hangs back, still staring, and once everyone else has gotten their fill, he edges his way toward Clarke.

“You’re alive,” he whispers, reaching out to touch her, but hesitating before his hands makes contact.

“So are you,” Clarke says, quiet.

“When I heard your voice I thought I’d finally lost it,” Bellamy admits. He’s still staring at her like he can’t believe she’s real and she knows the feeling. “Clarke-“

She cuts him off with a sharp shake of her head and then she’s burying herself in his arms, trying to get as close to him as possible. She feels his nose against her neck, his breath hot against her shoulder while he murmurs, “I’m so sorry,” over and over again.

“So,” a voice finally says behind them, and they break apart. “You’re Bellamy?” Madi asks.

“Um,” Bellamy says, clearing his through once. “Yeah, I’m Bellamy.”

Madi looks him up and down before crossing her arms. “It took you long enough to get down here,” she says with a huff, before turning her attention back to Raven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk how I feel abt Mom!Clarke in this one. Like, on the one hand I don't think she'd entrust Madi's safety to Murphy, but also she's trying to cause a distraction and she doesn't want to leave her alone so?? I tried.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bellamy and Clarke are reunited after 2204 days apart. 2204 days of her radioing him and 2204 days of him hearing her and not being able to respond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part three. Static Noise (part one) is [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11004222) and part two is [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11011620/chapters/24534774) (the first chapter of this work).

Clarke sees the second ship come down five days after the first ship. This time, she and Madi stay in the cover of the sparse trees as it plummets out of the sky. It’s not until the parachutes deploy and Clarke realizes that it’s aiming for the small lake that she starts running.

Madi is close behind her, and when Clarke says, “This time it’s them, it’s them, it’s _them_ ,” she starts laughing. Once they’re in the rover, Madi’s a fountain of questions.

“What will they be like?” she asks, bouncing in her seat. “Are they going to like me? Will I like them? Are they going to help us stay safe from the new people? How do we know it’s really them this time?”

She keeps up her stream of questions for the five minutes it takes for them to get to the landing site and then she’s bounding out of the car, Clarke close behind her.

They both stop at the shoreline, Madi’s mouth dropping open while Clarke lets out a sharp intake of breath.

Sticking up out of the water is the ship. It landed near enough to the shore that Bellamy’s only in waist-high water.

Clarke watches as he and Monty help down Harper, then Raven. Next to them, Echo’s already tugging off her space suit, grinning as she drags her fingers over the water. Emori and Murphy are out of their own suits, laughing as they splash at each other.

But Clarke’s only got eyes for Bellamy. His hair’s longer, he got lines around his eyes that he didn’t have the last time she saw him, and he’s got some godawful beard that she can’t wait to tease him about. She just watches them for a second before she’s tugging Madi’s arm and running into the water, their splashing drawing attention.

She can’t hear him, but Clarke sees Bellamy mouthing her name and then he’s running toward her, closely followed by everyone else.

“You’re alive!” she says, when she collides into Bellamy. His arms are like a vice around her waist and he lifts her up a little as he hugs her. “You’re all alive!”

He’s murmuring something into her shoulder, but she doesn’t quite catch it. And she doesn’t have time to ask because there are arms at her back, pulling her out of his grip and then she’s in Raven’s arms, then Monty’s, then Harper’s. She hugs everyone, even Echo, who whispers fiercely into her ear, something in Trigedasleng that she was never taught and when she asks what it mean, Echo tells her it’s a blessing to those that give themselves up for others.

Then she’s back in Raven’s arms again. Raven hugs her tight, and it takes Clarke a second to catch up to what she’s saying. “I’m sorry, Clarke, we heard you every day and I couldn’t get our coms to work so that we could radio back.”

“You heard me?” Clarke asks, pulling back slightly and looking around the group. In the excitement of the last few minutes, she hadn’t noticed Bellamy going over to Madi, but Clarke’s not surprised to see that he’s got an arm around her now.

“Every day,” Monty says. “That’s how we knew where to land. We heard you the other day, but then you didn’t radio again and we were worried…”

He trails off and Clarke remembers that there are other people on Earth again and that if she saw the ship come down, they must have too.

She pulls back away and scans the area quickly. “The rover,” she says, making her way back through the water. She grabs Madi’s hand as she passes and Madi hurries to keep up with her. “We’ll take it back to one of the caves we’ve been hiding out in. We need to be quick.”

It only takes a minute to get everyone situated, and to her relief Madi fields most of their questions on the ride back.

“Clarke didn’t want to use the radio anymore once the new people came,” she explains. “We thought they heard us the day they landed and we didn’t want them to know where we were.”

Then, she huffs. She’s sitting in the passenger seat next to Clarke, so when she turns to look at the rest of the group, Clarke gets a full view of her crossed arms and reproachful look. “What took you so long? You’re a year late. I was starting to think that Clarke was wrong about you.”

Bellamy clears his throat, but his voice is still rough when he says, “We had some trouble fixing the fuel problem, but we got it worked out.”

“I worked it out,” Raven says. “I still can’t believe that it worked and we didn’t fry up in reentry.”

“Nice to know you had so much faith in your plan, Reyes,” Murphy says. She kicks at him once, before stretching her leg out and resting it on his knee.

“We’re here,” Clarke says, pulling the rover into the cave and cutting the engine.

Raven whistles when she gets out. “I know you said you were fixing up the rover, but I never imagined it like this. This is badass, Clarke.”

Clarke smiles and when Raven grabs her in a half-hug, she hugs back. “Thanks. I did the best I could without your help.”

“You did a pretty good job.”

“You really heard Clarke talking to you every day?” Madi demands.

“Yeah, we did,” Murphy says, crossing his arms and turning to Clarke, “I’m offended that I only got twenty messages directed to me. And in half of them you were just telling me not to be a jackass.”

Harper pushes at his shoulder as she passes him, walking further into the cave and inspecting it, “You were a jackass, so it’s not like she was wrong.”

“It was nice to hear you every day,” Emori says, smiling at Clarke. “John won’t admit it, but he liked it, too. It was part of our routine.”

“It was part of mine, too,” Clarke says. She gestures around to the cave, “This is home, for now. We’ve been moving every other day, since they landed. Do you want food? We have some meat-“

Clarke’s voice is cut off by Bellamy’s shoulder. He’s got his arms wrapped around her again and it takes her a second to adjust, to reach up and wrap her own arms around him.

He’s holding her tight, like if he lets go she’ll disappear and she can just feel the whisper of his mouth moving against the spot where her neck meets her shoulders. He’s murmuring that he’s _so sorry he left her_ and that he _can’t believe she’s alive_ and she tightens her own grip, rubbing a hand up and down his back and nuzzling into his shoulder.

“It’s okay,” she says, quiet. “I’m okay. And you came back.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Clarke first sees Madi, she’s sure that this is it. This is the point where not seeing another living thing for over a year drives her insane. The first symptom is probably hallucinations.

It’s an entire year before Clarke ventures off the island.

In the early months, she’s able to leave the lab long enough to scavenge, her Nightblood keeping her alive, but not fully protected from the lingering effects of the death wave. She finds dead animals that make her skin break out in sores; food that they forgot in the ruins of the mansion; a bottle of liquor, still sealed, that she saves and promises to drink from once a year, until the five years have passed.

She looks for things she can use, too. Surviving parts of trees or structures or anything. But most of her time is spent in the lab – rationing out what she has, attempting to grow new food, fixing the radio, trying to get anything to work.

Eventually, with the stuff she’s scavenged and stuff from the lab, Clarke’s able to make a small raft. She finds a piece of plastic to wrap the radio in and hopes that the range of the tower on the island will be strong enough for her to keep using it. She grabs some of her meager rations and a canteen full of water and then sets out.

When she gets across the lake, the Rover is there waiting for her.

“Oh my god,” she says quietly, her voice hoarse from disuse. Then, louder, “Oh my god!”

Clarke laughs, the sound surprising her. She stops abruptly, but it keeps bubbling out of her, this first shot of happiness in almost a year.

“Monty’s radiation-proofing really must have worked,” she says, running her hand over the door handle in awe.

She gives an experimental tug and the door opens. Clarke nearly laughs again, but instead she hoists herself up into the driver’s seat.

Everything around her is still burned – the ruins of the cargo truck are a few yards away – but she can’t contain the excitement that’s thrumming in her chest.

It takes a few tries until the Rover starts and Clarke almost cries when it does.

She feels like she’s dreaming, the endless possibilities spread out in front of her. She could look for old bunkers, places that survived the first bombs, places where Praimfaya didn’t destroy everything.  
Clarke’s so caught up in the maybes that she forgets to be alert, forgets everything she’d learned those first few months on the ground. She hears a stick snap and her head shoots up, scanning the area. She doesn’t have a gun, doesn’t have any sort of weapon, but she shouldn’t have needed one. She’s the only one left.

That’s when she sees it, behind the carcasses of a group of burned up trees.

“ _Oh god_ ,” Clarke thinks. “ _This is it. I’m going insane. I’m hallucinating. Is the Rover even here or am I imagining that, too?_ ”

A weight settles in her stomach as she watches the trees, blinking quickly.

But the little girl doesn’t disappear.

She’s watching Clarke, too. Her hair’s wild, a snarl of dark waves, and she’s covered in dirt. It almost looks intentional, like she wanted to blend in with the charred landscape.

They stare at each other for a few minutes, neither backing away or flinching and Clarke finally makes up her mind.

She slowly raises her hands and gets out of the car. The girl straightens, but doesn’t run, just watches Clarke carefully.

Clarke has to think to remember the words, over a year of disuse making her rusty. “Ai laik Clarke,” she says. “Kom Skaikru.”

The girl’s eyebrows scrunch up. It only takes a moment for her to take a small step forward. “Ai laik Madi. Kom… kom…” she trails off and frowns, trying to remember.

It’s staggering, the sudden rush of relief that Clarke feels, almost enough to bring her to tears. Instead she takes a deep breath and takes a few more steps forward. She shrugs her backpack off slowly as Madi watches her, still looking cautious and weary, like she might run off at any moment.

Clarke takes out some of the rations she’s packed. She tries to tell Madi that it’s food and water, but her Trigedasleng was always messy and after the lack of practice, she’s not sure her point gets across. She knows the words for _death_ and _army_ and _sacrifice_ , but not for _food_ or _safety_ or _friend_.

She’s not sure she makes herself clear, so she takes a bit of her rations first, then holds it out to Madi.

Madi’s eyes light up and she races over to Clarke. While she eats, Clarke takes a minute to look at her. She’s small, maybe six or seven, all bones and sharp edges. It’s clear that she hasn’t been eating well and her clothing it torn in place. She’s got a small blade point out of the top of her boot.

Clarke can’t imagine how she’s been surviving.

Once Madi’s done, Clarke points at herself. “Natblida,” she says. Then, pointing to Madi, “Natblida?”

“Natblida,” Madi says, nodding. She says something else that Clarke doesn’t recognize and then frowns when Clarke doesn’t answer her. They try, for a few more minutes, to talk, but eventually Clarke gives up, just pointing to the Rover.

“Hou.” Clarke says. Then, pointing back across the lake, “Hou. Home.”

“Home.” Madi repeats.

Clarke smiles at her. She holds out her hand and Madi hesitates for a moment before reaching out and grabbing it. She smiles back at Clarke and lets Clarke pull her up, following her to the bank of the river where the raft still sits.

***

It feels like a dream, to have Madi walking into Becca’s lab with her. Clarke has to pinch herself to make sure it’s real.

Six months later, they find the small valley of green, and this time it feel less like a dream and more like hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, hey there. I'm trying to write again. It's a process.

**Author's Note:**

> Come cry with me on [tumblr](http://fitnessandfandom.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/jorie_x). Or theorize with me abt season five. Or both.


End file.
